Free Music! A sweet tune from Gospel Music

First, just to be clear, Gospel Music in this case has nothng to do with gospel music. It's the name of an indie-pop band from Jacksonville, Florida.

Owen Holmes, known as bassist for Black Kids, records under that name. Today's free tune comes from Gospel Music's debut disc "How to Get to Heaven from Jacksonville, FL."

"Apartement" finds Holmes singing with Madeline Long about the joys of reuniting with an on-again, off-again love behind closed doors.

To download the tune, click the downward arrow in the player above.

Co-incidentally, Gospel Music is scheduled to play Saturday, Dec. 10, in Charlottesville.

Here's a press release about Holmes' project and the associated tour.

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LOS ANGELES, CA, December 5, 2011 - Gospel Music, the nom de tune of Black Kids bassist Owen Holmes, will kick off its first-ever national tour tonight, December 5, in Nashville at Foobar. The tour will hit Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Atlanta and several other major cities before culminating with a hometown show at Jack Rabbits in Jacksonville, FL. The indie pop troubadour and his full band are out supporting debut LP, How To Get To Heaven From Jacksonville, FL, released in October on Kill Rock Stars. In conjunction with the tour, Gospel Music is giving away second single "Apartment" for free download. The twee pop duet features Holmes' talky baritone with Madeline Long's girlish coo as the pair sing about two lovers embarrassingly getting back together out of sight of their friends. "In my apartment the bar doesn't close/In my apartment we don't need clothes" they rationalize over sprightly guitars and jaunty drums.

A charming 11-song collection of wry, literate lo-fi indie pop, Gospel Music's debut LP, How To Get To Heaven From Jacksonville, FL, sees Holmes further developing his homespun style first heard on 2010's aptly titled duettes EP, a 5-song collection of duets with members of The Magnetic Fields, Camera Obscura, Vivian Girls, Hefner and Soko. On Heaven Holmes layers toy piano, organ, ukulele and banjo over bouncy basslines, minimalist drums and jangly guitars as he sings tales of unrequited love, long-distance running and avoiding an ex in a small town. Called "a lo-fi indie delight" by Magnet, Gospel Music has garnered comparisons to The Magnetic Fields, Moldy Peaches, Jonathan Richman and other purveyors of entertaining, heartbreaking and poetic narratives. "Gospel Music spins lyrical witticisms, knowing naiveté and basic, pure melodies into deadpan candy," exclaimed Orlando Weeklywhile Under the Radar described the album as a "jangly cross between Lou Reed and '80s Athens, GA college rock."

How To Get To Heaven From Jacksonville, FL takes its name and cover art from a turn-or-burn evangelical tract Holmes used to hand out as a Southern Baptist teenager. While his fundamentalist upbringing certainly made an indelible impression it started to show cracks during his adolescence when he discovered there are 400,000 species of beetles. The moniker is a nod to his youth but it's a much different gospel. The one he is now spreading is of the dive bar, the faltering romance, the boiled peanut.